Top TV channels are always contending to own the satellite rights to big films, which would add value and increase traffic for their channel. Last year, the satellite and digital rights to all the big films, including Sarileru Neekevvaru, Ala Vaikuntapuramlo and Bheeshma, were purchased by Sun Network, leaving the other channels with other, smaller films.
This year, Star Maa has bagged the rights to all major films, having paid a huge amount to the filmmakers for the rights. These films include RRR, Pushpa, Akhanda and Sarkaru Vaari Paata. While RRR and SVP aren’t expected to release until next year, Akhanda and Pushpa are expected to release this year itself. Apart from these films, the only other big films left out are Prabhas’s all three upcoming films – Radhe Shyam, Salaar and Adipurush.
Sources say that the non-theatrical rights of Radhe Shyam have been acquired by Zee Studios in Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, while Netflix has bought the Hindi version’s streaming rights. All in all, big films are managing to recuperate most of their budgets even before release, thanks to all the non-theatrical rights. All of these films are high on expectations, and experts believe that they will rake in a lot more money upon their release.